$8m for AI-driven search technology

Blackbird Ventures has led an $8 million seed-funding round for artificial intelligence (AI) driven search technology company Marqo.

Other investors in the round include Creator Fund, January Capital and the co-founders of Canadian language AI unicorn Cohere Inc., Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez.

Melbourne-based Marqo is trying to disrupt search which mostly remains based on entering key words. The company says its technology instead utilises vector search techniques and machine learning to produce more accurate results.

Vector searches can include context and definition. It also enables text or images, or a combination of both, to be used to define the subject of the search. The technology has been developed to improve search functions for online marketplaces but, according to Marqo, also has applications in areas such as generative AI, data analytics and security.

Marqo was founded last year by two former Amazon employees, Jesse Clark and Tom Hamer. Clarke was formerly a lead scientist at Amazon Robotics AI while Hamer was a software engineer at Amazon Web Services.

Vector search is not new but, because it is based on lengthy series of numbers rather than text, it is widely considered to be most effective for finding large documents, videos or images. Clark and Hamer, however, say their vector technology differs in that it utilises machine learning to progressively refine searches.

Gomez of Cohere believes Marqo can make AI more useful in business applications. He said vector search was a huge growth area that had become a “must have” component of generative AI.

Blackbird partner Nick Croker said most of the world’s 100 trillion gigabytes of data is unstructured meaning it cannot easily be accessed by conventional keyword-based search engines.

“Computers and companies need new ways to search,” he said. “Marqo represents the next generation of search – hyper relevant, AI-powered and based on human understanding.”

Image: Marqo co-founders Jesse Clark and Tom Hamer.